"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Not Enough Good Protest Music-- Here's A Great One About A Fucking Businesman Laughing Like A Spoiled Child
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People are always complaining that in the '60s there was a lot of great protest music and that now there isn't. There was in the '60s, though much of it was "underground." Today there's plenty as well-- and much of it-- maybe more of it-- is underground. Look harder. Do you know Company of Thieves, the Chicago band that;s been recording and touring for around a decade? They put out a couple of albums and in 2014 seems to have disappeared. They're back-- with a new album coming out later this year and a new 5-song EP coming out February 23. The new EP has an acoustic version of "Treasure," the song you can-- you should-- listen to above. I guess it's obvious which orange hued orangoutang they're talking about in the song, right? Right now they're on tour with Walk the Moon. Tonight they played in Pittsburgh and tomorrow they'll be at the Fillmore in Detroit. Friday it's a big homecoming at the Aragon in Chicago and Saturday at the Egyptian in Indianapolis and Sunday at the Ryman in Nashville. Lot's of dates through the South after that, then the West Coast. On the day the EP gets released they'll ve at the Orpheum in Madison and the next night the tour wraps up at the Palace in Minneapolis. And after that? Solo tour. You should make an effort to see these guys; Genevieve Schatz, the singer, sounds wonderful recorded but live she's even more powerful.
Treasure
You're a treasure to me
To have, hold and to keep
Heaven has no rage like
When you took all the love, love
You're a pleasure for me
To let in and let lead
Hell hath no fury like
When you took all the love, love
Racing up the cold dead mountain
Slipping into your old habits
Keeping tabs on places I have been
Yeah you took all the love, love
Running through the city shouting
Trusting that one day you'll hear it
I'd rather die than be silent
Yeah you took all the love, love
You're a puzzle to me
Build the borders and leave middle pieces empty
Yeah you took all the love, love
Posing for the pictures
You're still laughing like a spoiled child
Pageantry to make believe you're in
Yeah you took all the love, love
Hiding underneath the holders
Of the kings that came before ya
Guarantee the speed you'll make heads spin
Yeah you took all the love, love
Ooh, I can't have you
Ooh, I won't have you anymore
Ooh, I can't have you
Ooh, I won't have you anymore
Bagging up the money, honey
Tearing up the treaty, sweetie
Cutting off the maybe, baby
Yeah you took all the love, love
Signing up to keep on drilling
Setting out to make a killing
How could just a fucking business man
Really take all the love, love?
Ooh, I can't have you
Ooh, I won't have you anymore
Ooh, I can't have you
Ooh, I won't have you anymore
You're the villain for me
Keep close thy enemy
To have, hold and to keep
Don't Be Surprised That The Resistance Is Musical Too-- Green Day, Moby, Arcade Fire, Gorillaz...
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I haven't really kept up with the music business since retiring from Reprise. But I'm still a music fan and I was excited, about a month before the election, to hear the new Green Day album, Revolution Radio. The first single was the anti-gun nut song, Bang Bang and when they performed it at the American Music Awards a couple weeks after Trump won the election, Billie Joe inserted the lyric/chant, "No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA." The response was electric and downloads went crazy immediately. It's a funny thing about downloads... after the first single on an album comes out, the trend these days is for bands and record companies to decide about a second single based on downloads and spins. I'm not sure why they picked "Troubled Times," (video up top) but a friend of mine told me it was getting the most online attention, more than other contenders like Ordinary World, the upbeat title track or the very commercial-sounding "Still Breathing" (for which a video had already been made). It was a good decision. The album shot to #1 in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Italy and Ireland-- and #2 in Germany, Australia, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, Korea and Greece. The band is letting the song and video speak for themselves but their only statement about it that I could find was "Today we celebrate Love and Compassion more than ever." Of course, Green Day isn't the only band letting their fans know what they think about Trump. The Gorillaz, who haven't been around this decade, put out Hallelujah Money,which takes a little getting used to, but certainly makes the point. Arcade Fire teamed up with Mavis Staples on a song called "I Give You Power." I'm sure Moby fans, who had already heard him calling Trump a "sociopath," were just waiting to see how he'd react musically to Trump. No one's going to be disappointed when they watch the new video for "Erupt and Matter" from last year's These Systems Are Failing. Don't miss this powerful statement on the rise of fascism: And now check out another piece of the resistance: OurFirst100Days, which is very explicitly advocating action to protect threatened communities and causes.
Our First 100 Days seeks to aid in that protection. Joining together with artists and labels we will be releasing one rare, unreleased or exclusive song per day to you via Bandcamp. For a minimum contribution of $30, supporters will be able to access all 100 songs in the project, including new music from Angel Olsen, How To Dress Well, Toro Y Moi, The Range and many more. All profits raised from Our First 100 Days will go directly to organizations working on the front lines of climate, women's rights, immigration and fairness. The project was started in conjunction with Secretly Group and 30 Songs, 30 Days, and aims to raise funds and awareness for organizations supporting causes that are under threat by the proposed policies of a Trump administration. This project is produced with the help of Revolutions Per Minute, an organization that provides strategy and support for artists making change.
SONY Records— they were still called CBS at the time— had just bought my independent label, 415 Records and I was over in England hanging out with the Clash, Generation X, the Boomtown Rats and Wire and scouting for bands I could sign to 415 now that we would have CBS’ marketing muscle behind us. I met a young unknown singer from a small indie label, Innervision, George Michael and he played me a tape of a kind of protest song called Wham Rap. It was a little slick for 415 but… 415 could change. One thing I knew instantaneously— it was a hit. Another thing I knew: this kid was going to be a superstar. I was wrong about the first supposition and right about the second. I went back to CBS’ New York headquarters determined to sign the band. I had to get permission. They liked the band. “Thanks for bringing it in. It’s not really right for 415; we’ll sign them directly to Columbia. You have a good ear.” That’s called getting fucked. Michael’s partner, Andrew Ridgeley, appeared gay to me. And Michael was an obvious heartthrob for teenage girls. I didn’t think CBS could sell them properly in the U.S. while keeping their protest music aspect front and center. Well, that aspect lasted shorter than it took for the ink to dry on the contract, although exactly 20 years later George Michael released an epic anti-Bush/Blair song Shoot the Dog. Who would have imagined that just 5 years later Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan would adopt the duo’s second single for a Republican program for electing conservatives to Congress! It was this performance on Dec. 9, 1982 on the Top of the pops that broke the band and took out all the guess-work about how big they would be: [See Eric Cantor rocking out in the audience? Even he sensed Wham was going to be as big as Culture Club.] CBS, which never really had any respect for indie labels, eventually muscled Innervision out of the picture and released “Wake Me Up Before you Go-Go,” the video at the top of the page, and even people who aren’t as smart as Eric Cantor knew this group was going all the way. Cantor, though, started wearing his “Choose Life” t-shirt under his suits and ties and gave Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy the iconic t-shits as well. Tom Rooney (R-LA) bought his own just before the 2008 election and is rumored to still wear it today. “Wake Me Up” was the band’s first #1 and their next release, “Careless Whisper” came out next and was their second #1. Oh, man did I get rooked! In 1985 they became the first Western band to do a major tour of China and the resulting film (above), Foreign Skies: Wham! came out the following year, just as Wham broke up. Both guys went out of their way to appear to be straight, a typical pop music “business decision” for gay artists. Funny enough, it turned out Ridgeley really was straight and it was George Michael who preferred men. He had told my old friend, Judy Wieder, he was gay in 1999, so it didn’t come as a surprise to me at all when he finally stopped the “bisexual” pose. By then he had already been very publicly living with a gay man in Dallas and had later been arrested for having sex in a park in Beverly Hills. He was 53 when he died of as yet undisclosed causes at his home in the U.K. today. I bet he wouldn't have played Trump's inauguration either.
This week, I had a call from Steve Knopper, a writer doing a story for Billboard, about how musicians may look at their responsibility to call attention to the political anomalies around Trump and Trumpism. I'll share that with you when it's published next week. Usually when people ask me if I'm involved in the music business any longer I just say "no" or, if I'm feeling garrulous, "no, thank God." In fact when Steve asked me a question for a post-Nirvana period book he's writing, all I could do was offer to talk about how in 1994, the midterm election after Bill Clinton's first victory, saw a loss of 54 Democratic House seats and the rise of Newt Gingrich... but that my mind was blank about anything to do with music of the period other than how we had a huge success with Candlebox in that period. He didn't seem interested in hearing that Ted Strickland, Jack Brooks, Dan Rostenkowski, Maria Cantwell, Jay Inslee, Speaker Tom Foley and Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky all lost their seats that year. Alas, who would be? That said, just hours later I got three music-related e-mails. The first came from the producer of a film, Pitching Tents who is locking down the score and trailer and is eager to use a song my own little company publishes, "Teenage Underground" by the Red Rockers. Here listen: I should have told Steve Knopper to call them about how singers and songwriters are going to react to Trump. You can probably guess how the Red Rockers would react. They also recorded Guns of Revolution, the song that persuaded me to sign them to my little indie label, and Dead Heroes. I did mention Bodycount to Steve. That was Ice-T's rock band that got into some trouble for their song, "Cop Killer." I was the executive producer. It's a little harsh but listen: Why bring that up? That was the second e-mail. It was from a sociology professor at Cal State Long Beach telling me one of her students asked her to invite me to speak to her class about censorship. I'm going to. The third e-mail was from Johnny Strike, who I haven't been in contact with in a couple of decades. He was one of the singer/guitar players in San Francisco's legendary punk rock pioneers, Crime. Crime was mostly Johnny plus Frankie Fix who I believe died about 20 years ago. But there were a delightful cast of characters over the years I lived in San Francisco who came and went from Crime and two of them-- Hank Rank and Joey D'Kaye-- are, according to Johnny's e-mail joining him in a new recording project, Naked Beast. LP out in 2017. I can't wait. Meanwhile, I didn't even realize that Johnny Strike is an author and has a new book out, Name of the Stranger. He described the new music as "Crimey but also experimental." Want to hear what "Crimey" sounds like? This is Crime's classic first single, "Hot Wire My Heart" b/w "Baby You're So Repulsive" from late 1976. This is what I used to play on my radio show:
UPDATE: New Old Pic Johnny just sent me this, a photo, probably backstage at the Mabuhay in 1977, of Crime's Frankie Fix and Johnny Strike and yours truly in the middle. The world has changed so much since then! (I'm pretty sure I was wearing a Jefferson Starship promo jacket in the photo that Craig Chaquico gave me in return for a compromising audio tape.)
Despite Morning Joe's Cluelessness, Green Day Does America Proud! "No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA!"
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Was I lucky when I became the president of Reprise Records! The label had just debuted Green Day's Dookie and it was hurtling past gold and platinum sales. They reminded me of my favorite band, The Clash, in so many ways, not the least of which was a very genuine ideological perspective that encapsulated the ideals of the French Revolution-- liberté, égalité, fraternité-- and my first job was to persuade our European companies, which were ignoring the record entirely, that Green Day was for real. First stop: London. The chairman of our U.K. affiliate was condescending and steadfast. There would be no push for Green Day from his company; period. "We already had punk. What have you got next?" Next? Next, I went to Germany and forged a new kind of alliance-- to bypass the U.K. in breaking new American releases in Europe. The German company put their full marketing push behind Dookie and soon enough the U.K. was struggling to keep up with a Green Day explosion enveloping all of Europe. Dookie was one of the first albums to have ever been awarded the brand new "diamond" status-- 10,000,000 sales in the U.S. alone. This morning I woke up and the hypocrites on Morning Joe were castigating the cast of Hamiltion for being rude to Pence-- and for creating a "dangerous" situation for his family. Why not, the elitist scum who sit around the vile table, pontificated, wait for Trump to do something wrong before attacking him like that. Like that? A mild reminder that the president needs to work for the common good? And wait? Trump just spent over a year spewing hatred, bigotry and divisiveness and his first appointments were a KKK psychopath and a neo-fascist, Attorney General-designate Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III and senior advisor Steve Bannon. Wait for what? Round-ups and concentration camps. Please, God, let Mika and Joe and their table be the first bunch carted off to never be heard from again! I shut the TV off as quickly as I could and went downstairs to the DWT office and saw the reports from Sunday night's American Music Awards. Green Day stole the show-- no surprise there-- but it wasn't just the music. During a performance of one of their new songs, "Bang, Bang," Billie Joe added in a chant: "No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA!" Oh, yes. And fuck Morning Joe! As far as I know Trump hasn't tweeted for Green Day to apologize yet. Let's hope he does. And let's hope MSNBC invites Billie Joe over to make fund of Mika and Joe one day soon too.
This was the very patriotic, all-American message, that so offended Trump and Morning Joe idiots:
Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights Get up, stand up, don't give up the fight
That was Bob Marley and Peter Tosh in 1973. It's also the name of a documentary about the relationship between music and politics from the beginnings of the American labor movement to the final days of the criminal Bush regime. The first episode is below. So what about OccupyWall Street? I want to introduce you to Jasiri X, one of the most coherent voices emerging to describe and capture the messages of the movement in real time. One of his songs is embedded in the video above. The state of Utah murdered revered political songwriter Joe Hill for words no less incendiary than Jasiri X's.
You want class war? We'll give you what you ask for
Jasiri X, a community activist and emcee from Pittsburgh, is probably best known for the brilliant analytical video, What If The Tea Party Was Black? and the hilarious Guess Who parody Republican Women... Stay Away From Me. His genre is hip-hop; his message is universal... well 99% universal.
UPDATE
Oy veh! As every movement for social change in history has ever discovered, it's tough to self police-- but as Lenny Bruce said-- even in the ancient days they had to have rules about certain things. The drummer aren't the real problem here; they sound like they can be reasoned with. It's this self-appointed spokesperson, the nutcase, who nobody can deal with. People have been trying to get the "facilitators" to grapple with her for weeks, but they refuse. "She has just as much right as anyone else..." And the result is that the community board, which is sympathetic to OWS is probably going to vote to kick them out, which is what Bloomberg is waiting for. The "facilitators", in turn, are evidently already talking about how to continue the movement without Occupying Wall Street... All because of this one egomaniac, which their the OWS structure or ethos doesn't provide a way to deal with. Many people have been speculating that she's a plant. And, if so, she's perfect-- all the right cultural signifiers to make her pretty much bulletproof for many in this crowd. If OWS ends because of this... who'll be laughing and who'll be crying?
TODAY IS THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1970 KENT STATE MASSACRE
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My friend Thrasher runs the world's best Neil Young fan site. Since today is the anniversary of the Kent State shootings, he decided to ponder the question of why students today aren't protesting the Iraq war. Is it because there is no draft? Or is it because they're afraid that Bush will have them murdered the same way Nixon did?
OHIO: WHY TODAY'S STUDENTS DON'T PROTEST THE IRAQ WAR
-by Thrasher
Is this why today's students don't protest the Iraq war?
On Monday, May 4, 1970 at 12:24 PM, twenty-eight Ohio National Guardsmen began shooting into a crowd of student anti-war protesters at Kent State University. In thirteen seconds, the guardsmen had fired sixty-seven rounds and four students lay dead.
Immediately after the Kent State shooting (sometimes referred to as the "Kent State Massacre"), Neil Young composed the song "Ohio" after looking at photos appearing in Life magazine. Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young went to the studio and recorded the song which was released to radio stations shortly after the killings. Soon, the lyrics "Four dead in Ohio" became an anthem to a generation.
In the liner notes of the Decade album, Neil wrote:
"It's still hard to believe I had to write this song. It's ironic that I capitalized on the death of these American students. Probably the most important lesson ever learned at an American place of learning. David Crosby cried after this take."
The four killed and nine wounded were all full-time students.
Over the years, Thrasher's Wheat has received more mail and comments on this song than almost any other Young song. Comments like this from Jodi:
"I just would like to say that I am a 23 old student and I am doing a speech on CSNY during the protest era, mainly the song 'Ohio'. I would have to say that this song has touched me and it has become one of my favorite songs. It is tragic what happened to the students, especially when I read two of those who died were just walking to their next class. This song puts me in a time I was never in and I appreciate the music as well as the students."
Students and National Guard Clash at Kent State, Ohio
The events of May 4, 1970 have been extensively detailed since that day and there still remain many unresolved inconsistencies surrounding the activities of the Guardsmen and students.
"Gotta get down to it Soldiers are cutting us down Should have been done long ago."
Jimmy McDonough writes in the Neil Young biography Shakey about the song "Ohio": "In ten lines, Young captured the fear, frustration and anger felt by the youth across the country and set it to a lumbering D-modal death march that hammered home the dread."
"Tin Soldiers" & President Nixon
Crosby once said that Young calling Nixon's name out in the lyrics was 'the bravest thing I ever heard.' Crosby noted that at the time, it seemed like those who stood up to Nixon, like those at Kent State, were shot. Neil Young did not seemed scared at all.
When asked about releasing the song "Ohio", Graham Nash respnded:
"Four young men and women had their lives taken from them while lawfully protesting this outrageous government action. We are going back to keep awareness alive in the minds of all students, not only in America, but worldwide…to be vigilant and ready to stand and be counted… and to make sure that the powers of the politicians do not take precedent over the right of lawful protest."
A video collage of still images commemorating the 36th Anniversary of the killing of four college students by National Guardsman at Kent State in 1970
Start and end sequence of a 1 hour documentary special by Germany's WDR-TV. Coverage originating from major U.S. networks. TV Teams of NBC, ABC and CBS had been present.
YouTube video- In 1970, in response to Nixon's widening of the Vietnam War into Cambodia, students throughout the US protested. Nixon sent the National Guard to restore order to the Kent State campus. The resulting consequences changed the course of the war.
Student video project of the Kent State Massacre May 4, 1970.
I was reading Howie’s protest song post Thursday and checked out the PopMatters link to see their list. Lots of good stuff there, even if I, too, had a problem with the lack of Clash songs (no "White Riot", "Clampdown" or "Call Up"?) and I think Dylan’s "Masters Of War" or "With God On Our Side" would have been more appropriate for the current times than their choice. But, the real issue I have is that they seemed to skimp on the protest songs of today. I understand that the 60s are considered the golden age of protest, but there’s a perception that the protest song is an all but dead art form. Not true, to say the least. Protest music is very alive... and very well.
Perhaps protest songs are a little underground these days, but consider who’s in the way between the songs and us, the would be listeners. In a nutshell, your radio and TV stations are controlled, thanks to the media consolidation of recent years, by as few as five conservative run corporations. Start with the San Antonio based Bush Backers Clear Channel. The last thing these companies want is a thinking audience. Clear Channel has no problem serving up the mind-numbing vomit of Rush Limbaugh nationwide every day, but, they are reluctant to do the same for the progressive Randi Rhodes, even if she beats Limbaugh in the ratings where they go head to head. Transparent agenda?
It also doesn’t help that record companies are afraid to sign acts who deal with "social content" in their lyrics 1) because they know it will be hard to expose such artists to the public, at least through the traditional means of massive radio play, and 2) the people who run record companies these days aren’t exactly art-oriented and music-oriented deep thinkers. The end result is the endless stream of mindless dreck and mind rot of today’s best known pop music. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t good artists out there writing good stuff.
There’s an adage (I don’t know how old) that periods of great stress or repression lead to better art. It’s certainly true of the Great Lisbon Earthquake and its effect on Voltaire ("Candide") and other writers of European Enlightenment. It lead a whole culture to question the very nature of its existence. Without the ravages of Russia brought on by Napoleon, we might not have heard of Leo Tolstoy (War And Peace). Extreme poverty in the south in the 20s and 30s fostered a canon of American folk, country, blues, and jazz music that is still being built on today. No dust bowl in Oklahoma? No Woody Guthrie and no John Steinbeck. More recently, the generation of the 60s (my generation) came of age with a fear of being nuked at any moment by evil Russians, a series of political assassinations of leaders who wanted to make the country a better place, and two horrible Presidents named LBJ and Tricky Dick and their Vietnam War. Good thing we didn’t know then that the head of the FBI was running around the Plaza Hotel in a dress, insisting on being called Mary at night while urging Martin Luther King to commit suicide during the day. Might have made the times traumatic.
The 1980s gave us the affably vacant Ronald Reagan, the first in a chain of four Presidents who embarked on a mission of warring on the middle class and destroying the American Dream through corporate program union busting, removal of tariff protections that, combined with corporate tax welfare breaks, leading directly to a tsunami wave of factory closings and American jobs being shipped overseas, NAFTA, CAFTA, monetary re-distribution up to the top 1%, and the rest.
On top of it all is the fact that the current crap artist in the White House is such an absolute criminal lunatic that he makes an allegedly Las Vegas owned and operated crook like Nixon look better by comparison. Judging by the over 750 "I’m above the law" signing statements and, just this week, recent rights canceling executive orders that Bushthug has signed, he aspires to top every two-bit, tin-horned dictator the world has seen. When people like Hussein, Marcos, King George III, Stalin, and Hitler are "the decider’s" idols, LOOK OUT! The time is ripe for some great protest music, even if the performers end up in a stadium in Chile with their fingernails pulled out before they disappear completely. Hmmm. Who was head of our CIA when that was orchestrated?
Here’s a selected list of just a few of the fine recent (1980-Present) protest songs. No particular order. No New World Order. Find them while you can.
Outkast- Bombs Over Bagdad System Of A Down- Boom Pearl Jam- World Wide Suicide Rage Against The Machine- Killing In The Name Of Rickie Lee Jones- Ugly Man Green Day- Minority (protesting the Pat Robertsons of the world) Rush- Witch Hunt (another protest of Repug religious nuts) Midnight Oil- Beds Are Burning, Put Down That Weapon Jackson Browne- Lives In The Balance (This one was written about the U. S. intervention in Central America, but it sure works for Iraq!) The Minutemen- Joe McCarthy’s Ghost (He’s alive and well in so many Repugs. The reader should note that this band has numerous other great protest songs such as Cheerleaders, a song about those who cheer for war.) Garth Brooks- We Shall Be Free (His attack on homophobia. Garth sold zillions of CDs before he wrote this song. Now?) Billy Bragg- Help Save The Youth Of America REM- Flowers of Guatemala The Sound- Missiles Bright Eyes- When The President Talks To God (One of that all time best about Dubya and the voices he hears. Personally, I would prefer a President who spent his time with interns, consenting adult ones at least.) Kate Bush- Army Dreamers Billy Joel- Allentown (About the disastrous effects of Reaganomics.) Sinead O’Connor- Black Boys On Mopeds (It’s NOT a love song to Margaret Thatcher.) Guns & Roses- Civil War The B-52s- Channel Z (Kinda sums up the Reagan years.) Metallica- Blackened, Master Of Puppets The Psychedelic Furs- President Gas Translator- Sleeping Snakes (About the insanity of having enough nukes to kill everyone in the world 10 times over.) Willie Nelson-What Ever Happened To Peace On Earth? Fountains Of Wayne- Everything’s Ruined ('Nuff said) Tom Waits- Day After Tomorrow (A letter from a very depressed, not so gung-ho soldier.) Laura Cantrell –Sam Stone (This great Alt-Country artist brings things full circle by covering this classic John Prine song from the 60s. Expect more Sam Stones on your sidewalk soon.)
There are also whole albums by current artists to check out. I suggest Sleater Kinney’s One Beat, Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, The Beastie Boys’ To The 5 Boroughs, and a fine compilation assembled by Fat Mike (NoFX) called Rock Against Bush. Now available in 2 volumes, featuring such artists as Pennywise God Save The USA, Sum41 Moron, Ministry No W, and The Offspring No Bagdad). I also urge the reader to go visit Punk Voter. It’s a real eye-opener for those who think the current generation of musicians has nothing to say.
The reader should also be aware that protest has moved into the ringtone arena. My favorite consists of Bushthug’s famous "Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job" quote laid over a musical bed of Arlo Guthrie’s version of the Steve Goodman classic City Of New Orleans. Also back as early as 2005, ringtones were being used for political protest purposes. That year opponents of Philippine President Gloria Arroyo obtained a wiretap recording of a conversation between the head of state and a top election official. The recording featured Arroyo discussing fixing the country’s 2004 election. Perhaps she didn’t have her own in house "political manager" like some do. The Arroyo government then blocked the media from broadcasting the recording. Imagine that; the media working hand in hand with the government on election corruption! But, thanks to modern tech, it was too late. The cat was out of the bag. Some enterprising people of conscience took the recording and mixed parts of it with the popular music of the day and, next thing you know, the ringtone shot to the top of the country’s download charts. Download activity was so intense that it crashed the system (or was there another reason the system suddenly crashed?). You can make your own ringtones at home. We have the technology. Science is great, even if Republicans don’t want it taught in schools! Imagine a world where every time a phone rings, it’s a protest song! Be mad as hell. Don’t take it no more!
Impeach. Convict. Imprison. NOW! Sing it as you walk down the street. Pick up the phone and sing it to your congresscreep. Shout it from the rooftops! IMPEACH. CONVICT. IMPRISON. NOW MORE THAN EVER!
A few days ago PopMatters put up a two part piece on the greatest protest songs between 1824 and 1965-- before most of us were into songs or protests. They've now updated it so it runs through 1988. It starts with Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, 4th Movement which premiered in Vienna in 1824. It was based on Schiller's "Ode to Freedom," renamed-- out of fear of pushy Prusssians-- "Ode to Joy." In fact, Leonard Bernstein changed "joy" (freude) back to "freedom" (freiheit) when he conducted it at the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Other artists included in the survey were Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Woody Guthrie, John Coltrane, Pete Seeger, Sam Cooke, Dylan, the Mothers of Invention, Aretha, MC5, Creedence Clearwater Revival, CSNY, Hendrix, the Pistols, Peter Tosh, Minor Threat, the Dead Kennedys, The Ramones (although for the wrong reason)... and it ends with "Fuck tha Police" by N.W.A.
Take a look through the whole list and let us know what you think they left off-- I mean aside from the entire Clash catalogue. Here's one I always loved. It's a classic Joni Mitchell song, but done here by Pinhead Gunpowder, a side project of Billie Joe Armstrong. By the way, I once brought a CD over to Joni's house and played it for her and she was pogo-ing around the room.
